Earth Hour 2013

Earth Hour 2013 will take place from 8.30pm – 9.30pm on Saturday 23 March

Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest environmental event in history – Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). With almost 5 million supporters and a global network in over 100 countries/territories, it’s one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organisations. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and build a future where people live in harmony with nature.

Where it began

In 2007, WWF-Australia inspired Sydney-siders to show their support for climate change action in the first ever Earth Hour event. It showed that everyone, from children to CEOs and politicians, has the power to change the world they live in. In Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights out for one hour to take a stand against climate change.

In 2008, the plan was to take Earth Hour to the rest of Australia. But then the City of Toronto, Canada, signed up and it wasn’t long before 35 countries and almost 400 cities and towns were part of the event. It said something compelling to the world: that the climate challenges facing our planet are so significant that change needs to be global.

With the invitation to ‘switch off’ extended to everyone, Earth Hour quickly became an annual global event. It’s scheduled on the last Saturday of every March – closely coinciding with the equinox to ensure most cities are in darkness as it rolled out around the Earth.

In 2011, Earth Hour saw hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries switch off for an hour. But it also marked the start of something new – going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action on climate change. In 2012, Earth Hour celebrated its largest event to date with more than 6,950 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories switching off their lights, and with hundreds of thousands of people accepting an IWIYW challenge to take their commitment to the planet beyond the hour. With the power of social networks used to promote the campaign, Earth Hour is working towards an interconnected global community committed to creating a more sustainable planet.

More than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2012, sending a powerful message for action to save the planet. This year, more than 200,000 individuals accepting I Will If You Will challenges on YouTube to turn their symbolic action for the planet into an on-going commitment to a sustainable future.

Climate Change

Global warming is the greatest threat facing our planet today. A warming planet alters weather patterns, water supplies, seasonal growth for plants and a sustainable way of life for us, and the world’s wildlife.

A continuous flow of energy from the sun heats the Earth. Naturally occurring gases in the atmosphere, known as greenhouse gases, trap this heat like a blanket, keeping the Earth at an average of 15 degrees Celsius – warm enough to sustain life. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant of these gases. The amount of naturally produced CO2 is almost perfectly balanced by the amount naturally removed through photosynthesis and its dissolution in oceans. However, the overuse of fossil fuels is leading to increased CO2 in the atmosphere, trapping more and more heat and warming the Earth.

As a result, we’re seeing more dramatic weather patterns across the globe.  The effects of Earth’s changing weather not only causes devastating natural disasters but shrinking of the world’s ice shelves and glaciers due to warming sea water. Because ice acts as a solar reflector, the less ice there is, the less heat the Earth reflects. 

Humanity’s overconsumption of food, material goods, fossil fuels, and non-renewable resources is putting a huge toll on the planet, exceeding its capacity to sustain us. 

Forests absorb and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. So areas undergoing excessive deforestation experience higher carbon emissions.  Agriculture is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter after fossil fuels. Methane produced by livestock, manure management, the burning of savannah, and the conversion of forests to pasture land are all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change has already started, but it’s not too late to take action. There’s still time for us all to be part of the solution. Although the journey to a sustainable future may seem difficult to imagine, it is far from impossible. We can all do our part individually and together.

We can celebrate our planet one day a year for Earth Hour – and go Beyond the Hour towards a sustainable future.

Get Involved

Earth Hour is a unique opportunity for you to become more sustainable and do something positive for the environment. It’s been the source of inspiration for millions of people taking steps towards a cleaner, safer future. It’s not just about saving energy for one hour, it’s about going Beyond the Hour with lasting, behaviour-changing actions for a sustainable planet. 

There are lots of ways you can take action for Earth Hour. Whether you’re a social media fan or a hands-on organiser, you’re sure to find some inspiration right here!

"Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished"

"Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfil themselves."

Nelson Mandela

Today Is World Aids Day

"History will judge us on how we respond to the AIDS emergency in Africa....whether we stood around with watering cans and watched while a whole continent burst into flames....or not."

Bono

World AIDS Day on 1 December brings together people from around the world to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic. The day is an opportunity for public and private partners to spread awareness about the status of the pandemic and encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in high prevalence countries and around the world.

World AIDS Days will have the theme of:

 "Getting to zero:  Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths".

The World AIDS Campaign focus on "Zero AIDS related deaths" signifies a push towards greater access to treatment for all; a call for governments to act now. It is a call to honour promises like the Abuja declaration and for African governments to at least hit targets for domestic spending on health and HIV.

FACTS ON HIV/AIDS

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people's surveillance and defense systems against infections and some types of cancer. As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells, infected individuals gradually become immunodeficient. Immune function is typically measured by CD4 cell count. Immunodeficiency results in increased susceptibility to a wide range of infections and diseases that people with healthy immune systems can fight off. The most advanced stage of HIV infection is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which can take from 2 to 15 years to develop depending on the individual. AIDS is defined by the development of certain cancers, infections, or other severe clinical manifestations.

Signs and symptoms

The symptoms of HIV vary depending on the stage of infection. Though people living with HIV tend to be most infectious in the first few months, many are unaware of their status until later stages. The first few weeks after initial infection, individuals may experience no symptoms or an influenza-like illness including fever, headache, rash or sore throat.

As the infection progressively weakens the person's immune system, the individual can develop other signs and symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhoea and cough. Without treatment, they could also develop severe illnesses such as tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis, and cancers such as lymphomas and Kaposi's sarcoma, among others.

Transmission

HIV can be transmitted via the exchange of a variety of body fluids from infected individuals, such as blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal secretions. Individuals cannot become infected through ordinary day-to-day contact such as kissing, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing personal objects, food or water.

Risk factors

Behaviours and conditions that put individuals at greater risk of contracting HIV include: 

·         having unprotected anal or vaginal sex;

·         having another sexually transmitted infection such as syphilis, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and bacterial vaginosis;

·         sharing contaminated needles, syringes and other injecting equipment and drug solutions when injecting drugs;

·         receiving unsafe injections, blood transfusions, medical procedures that involve unsterile cutting or piercing; and

·         experiencing accidental needle stick injuries, including among health workers.

Diagnosis

An HIV test reveals infection status by detecting the presence or absence of antibodies to HIV in the blood. Antibodies are produced by an individual’s immune system to fight off foreign pathogens. Most people have a "window period" of usually 3 to 6 weeks during which antibodies to HIV are still being produced and are not yet detectable. This early period of infection represents the time of greatest infectivity, but transmission can occur during all stages of the infection. If someone has had a recent possible HIV exposure, retesting should be done after 6 weeks to confirm test results, which enables sufficient time to pass for antibody production in infected individuals.

Testing and counselling

HIV testing should be voluntary and the right to decline testing should be recognized. Mandatory or coerced testing by a health-care provider, authority or from a partner or family member is not acceptable as it undermines good public health practice and infringes on human rights.

All testing and counselling services must include the five C’s recommended by WHO: informed Consent, Confidentiality, Counselling, Correct test results and linkage to Care, treatment and other services.

Prevention

Individuals can reduce the risk of HIV infection by limiting exposure to risk factors. Key approaches for HIV prevention, which are often used in combination, include:

1. Male and female condom use

Correct and consistent use of male and female condoms during vaginal or anal penetration can protect against the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Evidence shows that male latex condoms have an 85% or greater protective effect against the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

2. Testing and counselling for HIV and STIs

Testing for HIV and other STIs is strongly advised for all people exposed to any of the risk factors so that they can learn of their own infection status and access necessary prevention and treatment services without delay. WHO also recommends offering testing for partners or couples.

3. Voluntary medical male circumcision

Medical male circumcision, when safely provided by well-trained health professionals, reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60%. This is a key intervention in generalized epidemic settings with high HIV prevalence and low male circumcision rates.

4. ART as prevention

A recent trial has confirmed if an HIV-positive person adheres to an effective antiretroviral therapy regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by 96%. For couples in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other HIV-negative, WHO recommends offering ART for the HIV-positive partner regardless of her/his CD4 count.

5. Harm reduction for injecting drug users

People who inject drugs can take precautions against becoming infected with HIV by using sterile injecting equipment, including needles and syringes, for each injection. A comprehensive package of interventions for HIV prevention and treatment includes:

·         needle and syringe programmes;

·         opioid substitution therapy for people dependent on opioids and other evidence based drug dependence treatment;

·         HIV testing and counselling;

·         HIV treatment and care;

·         access to condoms; and

·         management of STIs, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis.

6. Elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (eMTCT)

The transmission of HIV from an HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding is called vertical or mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). In the absence of any interventions HIV transmission rates are between 15-45%. MTCT can be nearly fully prevented if both the mother and the child are provided with antiretroviral drugs throughout the stages when infection could occur.

Treatment

HIV can be suppressed by combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) consisting of three or more antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. ART does not cure HIV infection but controls viral replication within a person's body and allows an individual's immune system to strengthen and regain the capacity to fight off infections. With ART, people living with HIV can live healthy and productive lives.

More than 8 million people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries were receiving ART at the end of 2011. Of this, about 562 000 were children. This is a 20-fold increase in the number of people receiving ART in developing countries between 2003 and 2011, and a 20% increase in just one year (from 6.6 million in 2010 to more than 8 million in 2011).

By the end of 2011, 54% of the people eligible for treatment were receiving ART. Coverage is highest in Latin America (70%) and the Caribbean (67%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (56%), Asia (44%), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (23%) and lowest in the Middle-East and North Africa (13%).

World Health Organisation response

Since the beginning of the epidemic, WHO has been leading the global health sector response to HIV. As a cosponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), WHO leads on the priority areas of HIV treatment and care, and HIV/tuberculosis co-infection, and jointly coordinates with UNICEF the work on the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

In 2011, WHO Member States adopted a new Global health sector strategy on HIV/AIDS for 2011-2015. The strategy outlines four strategic directions to guide actions by WHO and countries for five years:

·         Optimize HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care outcomes.

·         Leverage broader health outcomes through HIV responses.

·         Build strong and sustainable health systems.

·         Address inequalities and advance human rights.

WHO's core activities on HIV also include:

·         synthesizing the evidence on the effectiveness, feasibility and safety of HIV interventions and approaches, and guiding the HIV research agenda;

·         articulating policy options for national HIV programmes;

·         improving the availability and quality of HIV-related medicines and diagnostics tools;

·         setting norms and standards for scaling up HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support services;

·         providing technical support to countries to build national capacity to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate effective HIV responses;

·         monitoring and reporting on progress in the health-sector response towards achieving universal access to HIV services, including coverage and impact of HIV services; and

·         leading global efforts and facilitating cohesion and collaboration among partners to achieve the HIV-related Millennium Development Goals and the targets set out in the Global health sector strategy on HIV/AIDS, 2011-2015.

"I believe that this could very well be looked back on as the sin of our generation...I believe that our children and their children, 40 or 50 years from now, are going to ask me, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa? "

Rich Stearns, President of World Vision, US

Information shared with the complimants of: WHO: World Aids Day

Hope for America?

“Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward. 

It moves forward because of you.  It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.”

Barak Obama – acceptance speech election 2012

I am from South Africa and I sat up the whole night watching the Unites States elections.  Why?  Because what happens to the USA affects me and the rest of the world.  When Obama was re-elected and I read the resentful and nasty remarks on Social Media, I decided to look into what he actually has accomplished and whether he deserves another four years as the President.  My conclusion was what I had believed in the first place.

Too bad the American public still thinks Obama hasn’t accomplished anything.  Measured in sheer legislative tonnage, what Obama got done in his first two years is stunning.  He’s done more in four years than any president in decades:

·         Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act (2010).

·         Passed the Stimulus: Signed $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid greatest recession since the Great Depression.

·         Passed Wall Street Reform: Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession.

·         Ended the War in Iraq: Ordered all U.S. military forces out of the country. Last troops left on December 18, 2011.

·         Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan: From a peak of 101,000 troops in June 2011, U.S. forces are now down to 91,000, with 23,000 slated to leave by the end of summer 2012. According to Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta, the combat mission there will be over by next year.

·         Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was discovered.

·         Recapitalized Banks: In the midst of financial crisis, approved controversial Treasury Department plan to lure private capital into the country’s largest banks via “stress tests” of their balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. Got banks back on their feet at essentially zero cost to the government.

·         Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: Ended 1990s-era restriction and formalized new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time.

·         Toppled Moammar Gaddafi: In March 2011, joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action, including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost.

·         Told Mubarak to Go: On February 1, 2011, publicly called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to accept reform or step down, thus weakening the dictator’s position and putting America on the right side of the Arab Spring. Mubarak ended thirty-year rule when overthrown on February 11.

·         Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. He also released the secret Bush legal rulings supporting the use of these techniques.

·         Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. From 2008 to 2011, favourable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 %.

·         Coordinated International Response to Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010, helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.

·         Increased Support for Veterans: With so many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 % and 2011 budget by 10 %. Also signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.

·         Tightened Sanctions on Iran: In effort to deter Iran’s nuclear program, signed Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (2010) to punish firms and individuals who aid Iran’s petroleum sector. In late 2011 and early 2012, coordinated with other major Western powers to impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s banks and with Japan, South Korea, and China to shift their oil purchases away from Iran.

·         Passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees.

·         Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and re-established and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.

·         Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers.

·         Pushed Federal Agencies to Be Green Leaders: Issued executive order in 2009 requiring all federal agencies to make plans to soften their environmental impacts by 2020.

·         Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown: After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer 2011 budget deal to reduce projected defence spending by $450 billion, proposed new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defence strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and cyber warfare.

·         Expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, colour, religion, or national origin.

·         Avoided Scandal: As of November 2011, served longer than any president in decades without a scandal.

·         Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.

·         Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.

·         Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.

·         And more: In this article from the Washington Monthly

That Obama has done all this while also steering the country out of what might have been a second Great Depression would seem to have made him already, just three years into his first term, a serious candidate for greatness.

And yet a solid majority of Americans nevertheless thinks the president has not accomplished much. Why? There are plenty of possible explanations. The most obvious is the economy. People are measuring Obama’s actions against the actual conditions of their lives and livelihoods, which, over the past four years, have not gotten materially better. 

In negotiations, he came off to Democrats as naïvely trusting, and to Republicans as obstinately partisan, leaving the impression that he could have achieved more if only he had been less conciliatory—or more so, depending on your point of view. And for such an obviously gifted orator, he has been surprisingly inept at explaining to average Americans what he’s fighting for or trumpeting what he’s achieved.

In short, when judging Obama’s record so far, conservatives measure him against their fears, liberals against their hopes, and the rest of us against our pocketbooks. But if you measure Obama against other presidents—arguably the more relevant yardstick—a couple of things come to light. But the effects of some of those achievements have yet to be felt by most Americans, often by design. Here, too, Obama is in good historical company.

So please American citizens, although we have problems in the world, there are global situations that even the President of the USA cannot change.  Try to be less resentful and put more faith in your leader’s closing words: 

“And together with your help and God's grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you, America.  God bless you.  God bless these United States."

“I have never been more hopeful about America.  And I ask you to sustain that hope.  I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path.  I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the side lines or shirk from a fight.  I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”

Barak Obama – acceptance speech election 2012

Source References:  

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/march_april_2012/features/obamas_top_50_accomplishments035755.php?page=1

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/march_april_2012/features/the_incomplete_greatness_of_ba035754.php

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/07/transcript-obama-reelection-speech/

Today is Global Oneness Day

"Could changing just one belief put an end to war, eradicate poverty, save the environment, create genuine community, show us who we really are, make us happy, free us from selfishness, let us love our enemies, wake us up to the miracle of this moment, create a world of wonderful new possibilities and transform life into the exquisite celebration of existence we all long for it to be?”  

Author and philosopher - Timothy Freke

Today is Global Oneness Day.   Humanity’s Team declared 24 October 2010 as the first Global Oneness Day – a day intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of life’s underlying Oneness, that we believe all of life is connected, in the same way that Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of the earth’s natural environment.  And like Earth Day, Global Oneness Day invites people to bring Oneness into their lives in practical ways, not just conceptually.

Practical demonstrations of Oneness will give people tangible, experiential proof that living in Oneness works.  This will, in turn, encourage us all to expand our hopes, beliefs and behaviors so that, a generation from now, humanity will finally realize a dream it has had since time immemorial of a world living in peace, harmony and happiness.

A CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOR THE SOUL

Humanity’s Team as a Civil Rights Movement for the Soul calls for a New Spirituality to emerge in the world.   As such, Humanity’s Team is the vehicle through which the citizens of the world can participate in reclaiming their civil right to unique and personal expression and experience of the divine.

Through Humanity’s Team, the citizens of the world can participate in sending a message to the world that we are renewing and restoring our connection with God, life, and one-another.  As such, Humanity’s Team is a leading spokes-movement of the world for the message of Oneness.   We believe that the problems of the world are not political, economical, social, but Spiritual, and that the citizens of the world have a choice to re-write its history to become one that is reflective of the Spirit of Oneness.

Humanity’s Team believes that this is an important time to be alive. It is a time where life as we knew it no longer “is”, and life as we will know it “is not yet”. Life on the planet needs changing, now, in important ways. More than it has in a very long time.

Not only are we entering a new era, but a new experience – we are Awakening to Oneness.

Awakening the World to Oneness

Because mankind has over the years tried in so many ways to create a better world without making real impact, we may have become less and less confident that a solution to our problems really exists; we do not believe that true transformation is really possible, and we believe that we are only setting ourselves up for greater disappointment.

Mankind needs a single pivotal idea that can move the world; a radical idea that undermines our assumptions about who we are and what life is.

This pivotal idea is that We Are All One.

If these ideas resonate with your own, Humanity’s Team invites you to join them to Awaken the World to Oneness!

So head over to the Registration page: 

Sign the Declaration of Oneness:

Sign Up for the Global Rhythm Circle for Oneness: 

Listen to all the wonderful evolutionaries who are speaking as I write and leave a comment at the bottom of the Sessions page.  Replays will be available after 24 hours.

                              

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed."

Dalai Lama

2012: The End of Time?

“We are the architects of the world”

Gregg Braden

December 21^st is not too far away and people have many mixed ideas of what is to come.  I believe it is a time for change, starting now, to join together in peace and harmony and take steps to rekindle love and hope on our planet Earth before it is too late.  This is a reminder of an article I wrote earlier on Global Oneness Day 2012 coming up on Wednesday, 24^th October.

You ARE part of the global community. You ARE a member of the human family... and the larger than human family that includes everything.  

Imagine a world where everyone feels welcomed and wanted...

Imagine a world where everyone knows, deep in their hearts, that they belong...

Imagine a world where we all recognize that we are part of one global family...

It may sound like a dream, but it’s not.

GLOBAL ONENESS DAY was created to spread the message of oneness in the world so that you can be empowered to create a culture of peace and prosperity, creativity and love.  Please join tens of thousands of people all over the world to celebrate the oneness of life and help spread the spirit of oneness far and wide.

Many leaders will share their deepest wisdom, insights, prayers, music and meditations in celebration of our oneness including GREGG BRADEN, one of my favourite authors and visionaries.

New York Times best-selling author of DEEP TRUTH, FRACTAL TIME, THE GOD CODE and THE DIVINE MATRIX, Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. For more than 22 years, Gregg has searched high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to uncover their timeless secrets.

Here is one of the latest articles he has written which I urge you to read:

2012: PERIL OR PROMISE?

The real truth about the future of the world

We’re living the end of time.

Not the end of the world, but the end of a world age—a 5,125-year cycle of time—and the way we’ve known the world throughout that time. The present world age began in 3114 B.C. and will end in A.D. 2012. Because the end of anything also marks the beginning of what comes next, we’re also living the start of what follows the end of time: the next world age, which ancient traditions called the great cycle.

From the epic poems of India’s Mahabharata to the oral traditions of indigenous Americans and the biblical story of Revelation, those who have come before us knew that the end of time was coming. They knew, because it always does. Every 5,125 years, the earth and our solar system reach a place in their journey through the heavens that marks the end of precisely such a cycle. With that end, a new world age begins. Apparently it’s always been this way.

For at least four such cycles (or five, according to the Mesoamerican traditions of the Aztec and the Maya peoples), our ancestors endured the changes in global magnetic fields, climate, diminishing resources, and rising sea levels that come with the end of time. They did so without satellites and the Internet or computer models to help them prepare for such a radical shift.

The fact that they lived to tell the story stands as a powerful testament to an undeniable truth: it tells us beyond any reasonable doubt that the inhabitants of our planet have survived the end of world ages in the past. Beyond simply surviving, our ancestors learned from the difficulties that can accompany the change. In the words of their day, they did their best to tell us what it means to live such a rare moment in history. It’s a good thing they did, because such events are few and far between. Only five generations in the last 26,000 years have experienced the shift of world ages. We will be the sixth.

The present world age isn’t something that will simply fade away into the sunset of a time that seems to perpetually linger somewhere “out there” in our future. Just the opposite: our world age has an expiration date. It ends at a specific time, with a specific event, on a day that was marked on a calendar more than 2,000 years ago. There is no secret about that date. The Maya who calculated it also inscribed it as a permanent record for future generations. The date is etched into stone monuments that were built to last until the end of time.

When the date is translated to our familiar system of time, the message becomes clear. It tells us that our present world cycle will conclude with the winter solstice that takes place on December 21 in the year 2012. It’s on this date that the mysterious Maya identified the astonishing astronomical events that will mark the end of our age . . . and they did so more than two millennia ago.

To put into perspective just how rare the ending of such a cycle really is, consider that the last humans to witness the shift from one world age to the next lived in the year 3114 B.C., approximately 1,800 years before the time of Moses and the biblical Exodus.

The Maya viewed our emergence into a post-2012 world as the beginning of a new cycle of history. From this perspective, the solstice on December 21, 2012, becomes a powerful window for our collective emergence into our greatest potential. Such a moment is so rare that we have been preparing for it since the end of the last world age, and it will be another 26,000 years before the same opportunity cycles around again for our descendants.

The possibilities of such an emergence bring to mind the ancient accounts of the Garden of Eden, a place that once held all of the possibilities of our greatest joys and heartfelt desires. If we’re to believe the calendars, myths, and prophecies, it is just such a potential that awaits us following 2012. We could create a second Eden that picks up where the first one left off.

Biblical correlations do suggest, in fact, that the last time an Eden appeared upon the earth was about 5,000 years ago, at the end of the last Great Cycle. During that time, the planet’s inhabitants had everything they needed to live in balance with the earth, enjoying vital, healthy lives. As the choices of our post-Eden ancestors planted the seed events for everything that would unfold as the cycle that followed, they set into motion the patterns that define our world today. Some, such as forgiveness and peace, serve as powerful reminders of what is possible in our lives; while others, such as betrayal and war, have become the great challenges that divide us as people, families, and nations.

From cycles of weather to the balance of carbon dioxide between the oceans and the atmosphere, nature shows us that a pattern will repeat until something new replaces it. The change that accompanies the 2012 convergence of cycles is a rare opportunity to wipe away the patterns that we’ve outgrown from the past. At the same time, it’s also a precious choice point to set healthy, new patterns in place for our future and the future that belongs to our children . . . and to theirs.

“To tap the force of the Universe itself,

we must see ourselves as part of the world rather than separate from it”

Gregg Braden